What is the real solution of Kashmir Problem?

What is the real solution of Kashmir Problem?

Jammu and Kashmir burned and now Kashmir has been numbed by stringent curfew. Jammu has witnessed an intensely communal violent agitation for over eight weeks over the cancellation of an order transferring 100 acres of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. This is pitting Jammu against Kashmir, ethnic group against ethnic group, Hindus against Muslims in dangerous ways. BJP has politicized and exploited the agitation cynically. It imposed an economic blockade which closed the Jammu-Srinagar highway for weeks causing serious public suffering.

The two agitations have deepened communal polarization and strengthened both Hurriyat and Hindutva. Any decision of Jammu and Kashmir along religious lines is a recipe for the separation of the Kahsimris Valley from India. It will freeze two opposing identities a ‘Muslim Kahmir, and a ‘Hindu Jammu’.Jammu recently witnessed 10,513 protests and 359 serious incidents of violence is which 28 government buildings, 15 police vehicles and 118 private vehicles damaged. Several hundred persons were injured, 17 killed, 72 Gujjar homes burnt, 117 police personnel, 78 civilians injured. Schools, colleges, government offices, hospitals were paralyzed.

A matter of almost trifling significance has been allowed to swell upto this present development.A plan to build bathrooms and shelters for Hindu pilgrims visiting a shrine in Kashmir.But several deaths and violent clashes have transferred the protests into one of the worst political crisis to hit the Himalayan region threatening to sever the bonds between the predominantly Muslim region of Kashmir and Hindu majority India. Even during the last two decades of a brutal separatist rebellion in Kashmir and India’s harsh military response, the region remained firmly tethered to the rest of India through its coexistence with the predominantly Hindu region of Jammu united in the state of Jammu-Kashmir.The traditionally good relations between the two regions were a rare bright point in the long troubled religion that has otherwise been a flashpoint for Hindu-Muslim conflict and the rivalry between India and Pakistan.

Now surging violence has laid bare long buried animosity. Hindus in Jammu say they are tired of the union and blocked the main road linking them to Kashmir to make their point. And most Kashmir’s say a divorce would suit them too. “It used to be Jmamu and Kashmir now its Jammu vs Kashmir, said an editorial Cartoon in India newspaper. As day after Prime Minister Manomohan convened an emergency meeting with the leading politicians in a bid to end the crisis but failed to quell the unrest and agitation.
A lack of political leadership threatens to allow seating Hindu-Muslim tensions and separatists anger in revolt hit-Indian Kashmir to spiral out of control. Kashmir is now witnessing its biggest anti-India demonstrations in years which has been posed at a very delicate stage. Hundreds and thousands of people massed in Indian Kashmir’s main city Srinagar to demand ‘azad’ or freedom and protest against New Delhi’s rule.. “The political process has not been able to defuse the situation and new were at a very critical point where we have a very disturbing communal divide” Uday Bhasker, security analyst said.


Neerja Chowdhury said “The New Delhi and Kashmir administrations were causing napping. The government was simply out of cynic with the mood in Kashmir, the implications of the land transfer on the psyche of the people in Kashmir and the impact of the revocation in Hindus. The controversy has wiped out the huge gains made politically in the region in the last seven to eight years.” She noted referring to Indian claims that military was on the wane and peace was being restored. Analyst B. Raman, a former Indian intelligence officer criticized the government’s inept handing and the BJP’ Hindu Nationalist Bhratiy Janata Party’s cynical exportation of the crisis.” What militants failed to do in Kashmir since 1989 the government and the BJP have achieved for them.” dividing the region along religious fault lines.” I reckon we should hold a referendum in the Kashmir valley referring to a longstanding demand by Pakistan and rejected outright by India.”

Kashmir has nineteen year old revolt which left at least 43000 dead. Demonstrators violated the strict curfew restrictions which had been imposed from August 24 to discourage separatist rallies during which residents have openly paraded green Islamic flags and chanted pro-militant and anti-Indian slogans Thousands of troops were deployed moving to the venue where protesters had planned to rally, Srinagars Red Square, with fencing and barbed wire blocking entry points so that people could not gather.The square is where Indian first Prime Minister Jawharalal Nehru in 1948 promised Kashmiries the right to decide their future in a referendum on self-determination. He said it was his promise to the whole world. But the subsequent rulers of India derailed the matter inviting serious turmoil. Kuldip Nayar, the leading columnist of India commented on this present situation of Kashmir in this way“Some said the land allotment was meant to change the demography to turn the Muslim majority state into a Hindu one. This allegation is not true because New Delhi, even under BJP-led government has never tried to put Hindus from other states into Kashmir. The law prohibits non-Kashmiries from purchasing land in the state. Jawharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister , was categorically said in his pronouncement that no outsider would be allowed to settle down in the state. “( D.S 14.8 said Kuldip Nayar in the article’ The Siege Within’)
Actually, India gets afraid that the separation of Kashmir will encourage other parts of India where separatists are struggling for self-rule and freedom. Definitely it’s a serous issue for its freedom and sovereignty. So, India very strictly keeps the Kashmir valley in its grip. Continuous armed forces’ torture and repression has vitiated the atmosphere of Kashmir. It is also true that Kashmir has been given a separate status. Government employs special budget for the development and industry for this region to quell the people. Pakistani instigation, religious sentiment and the frequent torture of the Indian forces have made the people revolt against Indian rule. Hindus also have become fed up with this kind of forced and pretended friendship. India must take very pragmatic approach to find a real peaceful solution. Only repression and the language of arms can never bring sustainable peace in this region.




Md. Masum Billah
Programme Manager: Brac Education Programme, PACE
Phone: 9355253 (home), 01715-401267 (cell)
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com